Monsoon may slow down Metro tunneling work

The onset of monsoon is likely to slowdown the pace of Metro tunnelling work in the City posing a major challenge to the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) in meeting the deadline.

BMRCL is hoping to finish the boring work at the Vidhana Soudha Metro station by September this year. 

When asked about the progress of tunneling at this junction, a BMRCL official said that it will take at least three to four months to complete. “As of now, only 49 percent of the tunneling work has been completed on this stretch ,” he said. 

The tunneling between Sir M Visveswaraya Station and Vidhana Soudha Station started in May and according to a newsletter issued in July, Tunnel Boring machine (TBM 1- Helen) had progressed upto 75 m and TBM 2 (Margarita) upto 12 m. The shifting of the statue of Dr B R Ambedkar is still pending because of political pressure.

The work on both the tunnels between Majestic and Sir M Visveswaraya stations have been completed and the tunneling is part of the underground component of Namma Metro’s East-West corridor. 

On the other hand, tunnelling work on the east of Cubbon Park station is expected to begin as TBM 3 is ready  for operation. 

The underground work of the project on the North-South corridor has been awarded to Coastal-TTS, a joint venture consortium. 

Officials added that a fourth TBM machine had been recently shipped to Bangalore from Herenknecht in China and is expected to be operational by September. 

A fifth TBM machine is expected to arrive at Chennai Port from China this month.